


Blood and Honor

by TheKingRaven091



Category: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned, Grand Theft Auto Series (Video Games), Grand Theft Auto V
Genre: Bikers, Caity Lotz - Freeform, Criminal Underworld, Explicit Language, F/M, Gangs, Gangsters, Grand Theft Auto Online, Inspired by Sons of Anarchy, Motorcycle clubs, Sexual Content, Sons Of Anarchy - Freeform, Tom Hardy - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 08:54:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22967263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheKingRaven091/pseuds/TheKingRaven091
Summary: Tyler Wolfe has just been released from jail after serving a ten year sentence for crimes he had committed as a member of the Outlaw Motorcycle Club, The Valkyries. He has decided not to return to the life of an outlaw biker but quickly finds that trying to live a normal life and repairing broken relationships is not easy to do when the outlaw way is constantly trying to pull you back in.
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Dramatis Personae (face claim links)~**

  * [Evan Wolfe](https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/boyd-holbrook-the-thirst.jpg?w=1000), Valkyries Prospect
  * [Logan Knocke](https://fighterxfashion.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/cody-garbrandt-self-made-shirt.jpg), Valkyries Patched member
  * [Eddie Keene](https://imagesvc.timeincapp.com/v3/fan/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffansided.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2017%2F10%2F824109704-ufc-214-weigh-in.jpg.jpg&c=sc&w=850&h=560), Valkyries Sergeant at Arms
  * [Garrett Baxte](https://stat.ameba.jp/user_images/20141211/20/age6351/e4/e4/j/o0800112613156006792.jpg?caw=800)r, Valkyries Patched member
  * [Jason 'Scarecrow' Ross](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e5/0e/98/e50e982e334858d5834f66efbaaeea14.png), Valkyries Patched member
  * [Harold Cooper](http://s15858.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Francis-Hummel-The-Rock-Bad-Guy.jpg), Army General
  * [Tyler Wolfe](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/taboo/images/9/98/Cast_Infobox_-_Tom_Hardy.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170720212205), former Valkyries Sergeant at arms
  * [Howard Hill](https://celebrityhometown.com/wp-content/uploads/featured-img/m/michael-rooker.jpg), Valkyries Vice President
  * [Mike Ramsey](http://ecwfrenchtribute.free.fr/HTLM/Photos/T/The_Undertaker/The_Undertaker_-_Mark_Calloway_98.jpg), Valkyries Road Captain
  * [Alex Baine](https://imagesvc.timeincapp.com/v3/mm/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn-s3.si.com%2Fs3fs-public%2Fsi%2Fdam%2Fassets%2F13%2F06%2F21%2F130621151600-randy-couture-t1b-single-image-cut.jpg&w=1100&q=85), Valkyries Treasurer
  * [Nicole Mortimer](https://i.redd.it/7suhbuzpm1i11.jpg), Ryan Mortimer's Old Lady
  * [Ryan Mortimer](https://img.cinemablend.com/filter:scale/quill/f/c/0/4/3/b/fc043bc78b26c9bbe51c411a8dec5a598b10e6a8.jpg?fw=1200), Valkyries President



* * *

**[PART ONE]**

**_Raton Canyon Blaine County, San Andreas - 2020_ **

The desert was a shitty place to be no matter what time of day or year it was. There were so many other places that Evan Wolfe would have preferred to be than where he was now, but as a prospect in the Valkyries Motorcycle Club he had to go where he was told. He was at the beck and call of the club twenty-four seven and had to perform whatever task he was given, no matter how menial or degrading.

He knew that they were tasks designed to test his loyalty to the MC and how brave he was and whether or not he had the balls to live the life of a one-percenter outlaw biker. He knew he had it in him because the Valkyries were in his blood. Both his father, a founding member of the Valkyries, and his older brother, who had worked his way up to the rank of Sergeant at Arms, had been members, but neither of them were around now.

His father Lucas had died of cancer six years previously and his older brother Tyler was going to be released soon after serving a ten-year prison sentence. He had only been nine when his dad died so he was raised by his godfather Ryan Mortimer, the President of the Valkyries. He was steeped in the club’s history and even though he was a Prospect, he’d learned a lot about how the club made its money even if he wasn’t supposed to be privy to that information just yet.

Evan didn’t try to pull the lineage card though and he took every bad joke, prank and task in stride. Luckily today it was a straight-forward task, and he actually considered it a step forward from the ones he’d been getting before.

He was out in the desert with four other full patched members, each bearing the bearded Viking skull patch on the back of their kuttes. Evan was stretched out on his white Western Bagger smoking a cigarette and doing his best not to cook in the afternoon sun. He had no idea how some of the others could be wearing leather jackets under their leather vests and still not have a bead of sweat on their brow.

Evan had parked his Bagger beside the van that had been driven up by one of the patched members to haul the cargo that they were currently waiting on. Laid out in the much shadier confines of the empty van was Evan’s sponsor in the club and close friend Logan Knocke. They’d known each other for years but Logan was a few years older.

Logan was just shy of five-foot-eight, a few inches shorter than Evan, but his build had more muscle tone to it, most of which was covered up by a patchwork of tattoos. He was the current star prodigy of the Valkyries boxing gym, their legit business that they operated in Paleto Bay.

The full-patched member sat up with a groan. “We’ve been here for almost two hours, where the hell is this guy?!”

“Shut up.” Two of the others said in unison without even looking in Logan’s direction. Despite his success in the boxing ring and earning cash for the Club, Logan wasn’t really looked on kindly by some of the senior members like Eddie and Garrett.

Eddie Keene was the best friend of Evan’s older brother and now held the rank that Tyler had formerly owned. Eddie made it no secret that he thought Logan was a cocky hot head, a trait that had been exacerbated under the tutelage of the Club Vice President Howard Hill, Logan’s former sponsor. Eddie and Tyler had spent so much time together they had wound up dating a pair of sisters and Eddie had wound marrying one of them.

Evan liked Eddie. He was a cool dude who seemed to know a little bit about everything and didn’t do things without thinking them all the way through first, which was why he and Howard were always butting heads.

Garret Baxter was an interesting individual, he was also heavily tattooed and his hair was hardly ever the same color on a weekly basis, sometimes featuring two or three different colors. He also trimmed intricate designs into his beard on occasion. He was the most laid back of the bunch currently sweating their asses off, but when he got angry, he got dangerous.

He and Eddie were staring down the trail their contact would be travelling from, standing in front of their bikes, Eddie’s was a Western Zombie chopper in the Club’s signature deep purple color while Garret’s was a solid black LCC Hexer.

“Cooper is always late.” Garret said. “He’s cautious.”

“For good reason.” Eddie said without taking his eyes off the road. “The way things are these days we all need to be.”

The criminal landscape had shifted drastically in the last couple years. Up until 2010 The Valkyries had been the only real Motorcycle Club operating in the Los Santos region, but then some key members of the Lost MC from Liberty City migrated out to San Andreas and took root all throughout the area setting up three charters; two fixed ones in Blaine County, the Vinewood area of Los Santos and a nomad group who roamed across the state.

They funneled low grade crank into the disenfranchised communities and turned Blaine County into even more of a desolate hell hole. Then they started to try and get a foothold in the arms trade and that was where the Valkyries made the majority of their off the books cash. By 2013 the Lost were fully entrenched and seemed likely to be a permanent fixture in the criminal underworld.

At least until they started using their own drugs and let themselves become dismantled by one crazed meth dealer named Trevor Phillips. Now the Lost were a shell of their former selves, the Blaine County chapter all but destroyed and the Vinewood chapter was having trouble keeping a steady roster of members as the organization tried to rebuild.

Other problems had surfaced in the fall of the Lost MC though. The Varrios Los Aztecas were a seemingly small-time gang based out of Blaine County and the Rancho area, working mostly in the drug and prostitution trade, but they had connections to Mexican cartels and had the balls to go to war with the Salvadorians, who were associates of the Valkyries from time to time. Now they were trying to push into the northern borders of Paleto Bay and set up their crack dens.

On the Southern Border of Paleto Bay another problem had also reared its ugly head. The Angels of Death MC, and one of their notorious members Joe Jon Johnson, had set up shop in the Del Perro neighborhood and the nearby town of Chumash and patched over another low-level MC to give them a proper foothold in Los Santos. It was a pure power move, on top of already having a big foothold in San Fierro, The Angels of Death were one of the biggest motorcycle clubs in the world with chapters on several continents. They were also quite the money-making machine, they had a theme park for fucks sake and no shortage of branded merchandise.

That didn’t keep them from getting dirty though. Joe Jon was one of the dirtiest players in the game. He was a high functioning meth addict, quite the opposite of what Johnny Klebitz had been for the Lost. No, Joe Jon showed up and turned the shit rank Chumash club into a proper MC with cash and guns and vision.

Now they wanted the Valkyries gun business.

So, with war brewing on two fronts there was plenty of reason to be cautious in Eddie’s mind, which Evan completely agreed with. That was why their fifth man was watching the hills around them. Jason Ross was a tall, pale Dutchman who had served in the Commando Corps of the Royal Netherlands Army as a sniper. He rarely said a word and because of his rather lanky appearance had been given the nickname Scarecrow by others in the MC.

It was unlikely the AoD would try to hit them all the way up here, if anything were to happen the VLA would be behind it. This was their territory and they knew the hills out here better than anyone from the Valkyries did, but Jason had eerily accurate eyesight and if something moved on any of those hills, he’d see it.

“Anything?” Eddie called to him and only got a silent negative headshake as a response. Eddie just shrugged and turned his eyes back towards the road.

Evan sat up on his bike and stretched out his arms before swinging his legs off the frame of the Bagger and walked over to the pair. “So, who are we waiting on exactly?” He asked as he stomped out his cigarette butt.

“We didn’t bring you here so you can ask questions Prospect.” Garrett said as he reached in his vest for his own cigarettes and lit one up. “You just stand there and try to look pretty.”

Eddie let out a short grunt. “No harm and giving him some details. He’s Tyler’s brother, man.”

“Yeah, but look how that turned out.” Garrett said as he exhaled a cloud of smoke as he tucked away his cigarettes back inside his kutte.

“I’m not leaving the Valkyries, not like Tyler.” Evan said defensively. That was just one more reason why Evan wasn’t so thrilled his brother was getting released from Bolingbroke Penitentiary later in the day. Tyler had decided to walk away from the Club shortly after being sent to prison and his father had started to develop regrets about the path he’d gone down once he’d gotten sick.

It had created a stigma around Evan for the others in the Club. He doubted that without Ryan at the head of the table and Eddie and Logan vouching for him, that he might not have even been given the chance of being a Prospect for the Club.

Garrett looked at him for a few seconds and then huffed. “Fine tell him, but this is on your balding head if Ryan doesn’t like it.” He turned and walked away towards the van.

Eddie stepped closer to Evan and crossed his arms over his chest. “We’re waiting for a man named Cooper, he’s our gun supplier. He’s got connections inside Fort Zancudo who have access to the weapons lockers.”

“The military doesn’t take inventory of its weapons lockers?” Evan asked with a raised eyebrow. “That doesn’t seem right.”

“Sure, it would look strange if they took inventory of their guns one day and found they were missing a couple dozen, but that’s why we leave replacement guns.” Eddie grinned.

“The military regularly swap outdated guns for newer models. Occasionally Cooper swaps around some paperwork and greases a few palms and the shipment of new weapons finds its way onto the disposal truck rather than the old weapons. The old weapons get passed off as the new batch and from there, the new guns come to us and we sell them to the Families sets and Marabunta Grande so they can wage war with the Ballas and the VLA and whoever else they want.”

“Just every other shipment? Why not every shipment of new guns?” Evan asked.

“If the pool of newer guns the military has is larger than the older pool, then it isn’t so concerning when an older weapon pops up. Usually it’s just chocked up to being a clerical error and thrown onto the next disposal run and nothing more comes from it than that. But if there were consistent reports of older model guns in service rather than the newer ones that are supposed to be there instead…” He said with a nod and a shrug. “That could create some problems.”

“And we don’t need problems.” Evan said nodding his head and looking back up at the road. He squinted and could see something on the horizon and whatever it was, was making one hell of a dust storm. “Uhh, what’s that?” He said to Eddie as he pointed out the very visible disturbance heading towards them.

Eddie looked up and whistled to the others. “Look alive guys, we’re in business.”

The Valkyries all shifted from where they were and collected in the center of small clearing where the meeting was taking place. “Logan, you and the Prospect load up the van. Prospect you don’t say anything unless you’re spoken to, got it?” Garrett said.

Evan nodded his head as one large hauler followed by three military Humvees barreled down the road. For a moment Evan thought that they were caught and that these were military cops, but then he realized when none of the others seemed bothered by this that Cooper must have had more than contacts in the military, but had to be in the military himself.

An older man, maybe early sixties, in desert camouflage stepped out of the passenger side of the hauler and surveyed the group of bikers. His sharp eyes squinted and he snapped his head towards Eddie. “Where’s Ryan?” He barked at the Valkyries’ sergeant-at-arms.

“He had other business today, Tyler is being let out of Bolingbroke.” Eddie said back. “So you’re dealing with me today Cooper.”

“Jesus, has it been ten years already?” Cooper said and then gave a small shake of his head and started walking to the back of the hauler. Eddie and the rest followed. “Two crates of M4s and one crate of fully automatic shotguns. Six dozen guns total.” He recited like a machine.

Eddie nodded his head and extended his hand to Garret who produced a large envelop and handed it to Eddie. “Here’s your cut from the last run. How does one-hundred and twenty thousand sound?”

“Sounds like business is good.” Cooper said as he took the envelope and thumbed through the bills inside for a second.

“Between the Families sets warring with themselves and the Ballas and then the Salvadorians battling the Mexicans for the drug trade, you’re damn right it is.” Garrett said and then motioned for Evan and Logan to start loading the weapons.

“Heard you lot are getting some heat from a new crew out of San Fierro.” Cooper said. “They any risk to our business?”

“No more than the Mexicans are, right now the Angels of Death are staying out of our territory for the most part. Everything so far has been designed to antagonize us and piss on our shoes, nothing we can’t handle.” Eddie said.

Cooper nodded his head. “Well you tell Ryan that if he needs some heavy firepower to let me know. I’ve got a long history with him and I like the way he does business, so it’s in my interest to make sure you guys stay the number one crew in the area.”

While Cooper continued to talk with Eddie, Evan did his best to listen in on the conversation while he worked to unload the heavy crates and carry them to the back of their van. This was fascinating to him, he was learning something about Ryan that he had never known and he was also excited that he was being let in on this experience. To be sent on this run and do this job showed that despite the stigma of his brother and father, that he was starting to make progress with the others.

He set the last crate into the back and slid it towards Logan. “Is this van going to hold all this weight?” He asked as Logan hopped down from the rear of the vehicle and shut the doors.

“Yeah.” He said as he put an arm around his prospect and steered him towards the others. “We’ve made this run with heavier loads in the same vehicle before. We’re good.”

The bikers gathered as Cooper and his men climbed back into their vehicles and exited the clearing. “You see anything Jason?” Eddie asked as he climbed onto his bike and pulled on his helmet.

“Just animals.” Jason said as he turned and made his way back to his bike. “Rabbits.” And that was all he said.

“Good, let’s get the hell out of here.”

\-----

Today was a big day for Tyler Wolfe.

For the first time in just over a decade he was going to breathe fresh air as a free man. He had no idea what he was going to do with that freedom, but he knew what he wasn’t going to do with it. He had been a member of an outlaw motorcycle club and that is what had led him to a less the pleasant stay in the care of the fine state of San Andreas’s correctional facility. Tyler had wanted nothing else as a child but to wear a leather vest with the full patch of the Valkyries. He managed to float his way through high school and didn’t even bother going to his graduation. Instead him and a bunch of his MC buddies went to the Vanilla Unicorn stripclub and got drunk while celebrating his acceptance into the MC.

It didn’t take him very long to forge a path for himself in the club either. He’d spent a lot of time in the gym that the club operated and became a pretty good boxer. He’d go on to win several championships and a lot of money for the club in legit competitions throughout the state, and then win even more money for them in unsanctioned bare-knuckle fights. When he wasn’t using his fists for competition he was using them to frighten the locals into paying up their protection fees. Tyler became the club’s best enforcer after just a couple years and the most feared man in Paleto Bay. He’d killed rival gang members, threatened and intimidated officials in Los Santos. He’d done virtually everything and anything that Ryan Mortimer asked him to and it eventually caught up to him.

It was a simple intimidation job for the Italians, something they couldn’t be seen to be apart of. Tyler went and did the job but his get away driver, a fellow club member, was no where to be seen and an LSPD patrol car happened to be in the neighborhood and quickly rounded Tyler up. Tyler eventually found out that his driver had been passed out two blocks over after having too many drinks. Tyler wound up getting four years for the beating he’d given the target.

He wasn’t going back to that life. It had cost him too much as it was already. Tyler had had to stay behind bars while his father rotted away from the inside out from terminal cancer. It was about a year into his jail sentence that his father came and told him that he was sick and dying and that he wanted Tyler to promise to get out of the outlaw life. Tyler agreed but it was easier said than done to leave an outlaw MC. The only way that Tyler was let go without any recourse was to handle jobs for the Valkyries on the inside. Tyler couldn’t say no so he wound up handling informants for the Italians and the Families Gang. For the most part none of the crimes were laid at Tyler’s feet but there had been a couple instances where he had no choice but to do things in the open and get caught.

He got an extra six years tacked on to his sentence for those jobs. So ten years of his life lost in order to get the rest of it back. That wasn’t the worst of it to him though. He’d also lost the only woman he’d ever truly loved. There was no way for him to know where she was now, or even if she was still in the state. Still his long-term goal was to try and reconnect with her and see if getting back together was an option. In the short term before he did that though he knew he had to get his shit together; find a job, get some legit and steady income flowing in.

When it came to a place to live, he was lucky. His father had left him the family home in the will and a small chunk of change as well. So, Tyler was already better off than most people coming off a long jail sentence.

The last few hours inside his cell went by in an agonizingly slow fashion. His release was scheduled for around five in the afternoon and no matter what he did to pass the time, the clock just always seemed so far away from landing on that fifth hour mark. It was maddening and at times throughout the day he felt like he was on the verge of a severe anxiety attack, but then the guard came to his cell and escorted him to where he would go through the discharge process.

He was handed some forms to sign and his belongings were handed back to him. Tyler wasn’t sure they would fit him anymore. He’d packed on some more muscle than what he’d had when he’d entered the jail. He had always been a big guy, but now he had that typically jacked jail body. There was a set of faded black cargo pants, a white t-shirt and a pair of boots. Everything but the boots were a bit snug as he slid into them.

It felt weird being back in his own clothing after so long. It was much softer than the rough prison attire he’d been wearing for ten years. Then he was handed a leather vest emblazoned with a large Viking skull with a big, blonde beard. It was the kutte he’d worn while being a member of the Valkyries MC. That wasn’t something he was really happy to see.

His eyes landed on the Sanngrior flash under the Sergeant-At-Arms patch on the front of the vest. Sanngrior was the norse name of a Valkyrie, a particularly nasty one. The flash signified that he’d done something violent and cruel for the MC. Tyler grabbed the vest in one hand and signed the last of his release forms and was then escorted out of the building to the main entrance. He stopped dead in his tracks though.

Sitting just on the other side of the gate were five people, three motorcycles and one SUV. Four men and one woman, most of whom Tyler was not happy to see. One of them stepped towards Tyler with his arms open and a devilish grin on his face.

“Tyler my boy, damn good to see you!” He said as he came to a stop within arms reach of Tyler.

“Ryan.” Tyler said with a dark sigh. “The hell are you doing here? I never told you when I was getting out.”

Ryan Mortimer, President of the Valkyries MC and crime lord of Paleto Bay, laughed and dropped his arms. “We own the Sheriff’s office in Paleto Bay. You don’t think we have the ability to find out something as simple as your release date?!”

Ryan was in his early sixties but he had the muscular build of a much younger man and his age had not dulled that killer instinct in his hazel eyes one bit.

The three men with him were almost all of the Valkyries senior leadership; Howard Hill, Alex Baine and Mike Ramsey. Of the three Mike was the only one that Tyler could say he was happy to see. He was a massive man who was just an inch over seven feet and in addition to being the club road captain he was the one who’d taught Tyler to box.

Alex was someone Tyler was indifferent about. He was a founding member of the club and just a few years younger than Ryan. He had a head for numbers and ran the legit operations of the club as well as handled their off the books income. Other than that though he was a sheep who followed Ryan blindly and without question.

Then there was Howard. Howard had been the driver who’d gotten drunk and passed out behind the wheel, leaving Tyler to get caught in the first place. He was a founding member of the club as well, the youngest at about mid-fifties. It appeared he’d done some politicking and earned the Vice President’s patch. That really ate at Tyler when he saw it. His father had been the VP of the club since it’s foundation.

“What are you doing here?” Tyler repeated grimly.

“You’re my godson and I’m going to give you a welcoming home party. We’ve got a new spot in Los Santos a nightclub that we’re silent partners in.”

“Nightclub? You can barely run a boxing gym, what gave you the idea to open a nightclub.” Tyler raised an eyebrow at his former leader. Partying with the Valkyries wasn’t high up on his list of things to do, but it was a free ride into town.

“Oh I don’t run it, hell I only go to the place when someone starts causing trouble. I let the old lady run the place.” He said hooking a thumb over his shoulder to a busty, raven-haired woman who was half his age.

Tyler knew Nicole Mortimer very well. They’d gone to high school together. Why she was married to a man old enough to be her father was beyond him. She waved at him as she leaned against the SUV. Tyler relaxed a bit. If Ryan had brought his wife then he really didn’t have any bad intentions for Tyler.

“So come on,” Ryan said as he turned and motioned to the SUV. “Have a few more drinks with some of the boys and then we’ll call everything even.”

Tyler knew he shouldn’t be doing this but he still found himself nodding his head. “Alright, just a couple drinks though. Dad left me the house in his will and I want to see how bad my little brother has fucked it up.” He said as he started walking with Ryan to the SUV and climbed in.

He couldn’t lie and say he wasn’t interested in what a nightclub owned by the Valkyries looked like. That would have been such an absurd thing for anyone to suggest they get involved with back when he was sitting at the table meetings. Yet here he was in an SUV with the wife of the MC president and was heading down to Los Santos where he’d find out just what kind of place it was. 

It wasn’t until the SUV started moving that it really started to set in for Tyler that he was a free man as the scenery began to change from the arid, dustiness of Blaine County and into the more modern and lush backdrop of Los Santos.

There wasn’t a whole lot of conversation at first but Tyler had some questions that had started to form in the back of his mind. Paleto Bay wasn’t too far from Bolingbroke but Ryan had showed up with his biggest attack dogs. He looked around at the SUV and realized that the glass in the windows was a lot thicker than regular car windows.

“Why are you riding heavy?” He asked Ryan and tapped a knuckle on the window. “That’s bullet proof glass and you’ve got your meanest guns escorting you today.”

“Not really any of your business now is it, with you leaving the club and all.” Ryan said as he straightened out his kutte and sighed. “Shit is getting rough out there. The VLA are giving us a hard time to the north trying to jack our guns and set up crack dens. Then we have the Angels of Death setting up shop in Del Perro and patching over a smaller club in Chumash and we’ve been butting heads there.”

“And the Lost?” Tyler asked.

Ryan laughed. “The Lost haven’t been a threat for almost seven years. Johnny K got sloppy and hooked himself on the meth he was selling. Got himself killed by a rival dealer who then went on a rampage and wiped out their entire Blaine County chapter and significantly weakened their organization. They only have a small chapter in East Vinewood now and sell weed and act as bouncers and small time crap like that.”

“No shit?” Tyler said with genuine surprise. Johnny Klebitz had been a pretty real player when he first arrived in San Andreas. It was hard to see him slipping that low for Tyler.

“Other than that though, business has been good. The CGF and the Italians are in good with us thanks to that work you did on the inside. Hell the Italians even paid us for that last job you did before you went inside. Even though you got arrested you still scared that realtor so bad he bent to the Pavano’s and did whatever they wanted him to do. I saved you a slice of that by the way, figured you should have something to show for it.”

“Never saw you as the charitable type.” Tyler huffed. “How much?”

“Eight-grand. They paid us ten for the job.”

That felt wrong to Tyler. Ryan was giving him the lion’s share of a job that had gone wrong. Eight-grand was eight-grand though and if Ryan didn’t want it then Tyler sure as hell could find a use for it. “How’d you get wrapped up in this nightclub thing?” Tyler asked once they entered the city proper.

“Tony Prince got in touch with me. He’s an old friend of me and your father’s from back in Liberty City. He came out here to set up some clubs but ran into some issues, got in touch with me and needed some seed money. Nicole runs the day to day operations but Tony has some connections that help get big names to come in every now and then.”

“We got a nice spot behind the Doppler theater in Vinewood.” Nicole said. “Only took us a couple weeks to start generating a profit off the place.”

“And the Valkyries don’t have anything to do with it?!” Tyler wasn’t buying that. If Nicole was running a profitable business than there was no way that Ryan wasn’t funneling dirty cash into it so it could come out clean on the other end.

“Nope.” Ryan said. “We try to keep our distance from the place but some of the younger guys come in from time to time. Me and the others are a little too old for these kinds of places.”

“Speaking of younger guys, how’s my little brother doing?” Tyler asked. He hadn’t seen Evan since he’d been locked up. It had to be hard growing up without any family around other than a bunch of outlaw bikers. Having to be that young and watch your father waste away like that hard to be even more difficult. Needless to say Tyler wasn’t expecting a warm welcome from his little brother.

“He’s good. Got a few more months left on his Prospect period. It’s looking like he’s going to make it in, all of the guys seem to really like him.”

Tyler couldn’t stop Evan from going down this path but he knew what was in store for his little brother down the line. Tyler remembered how stubborn he was when he was 18 so he knew that there wasn’t going to be any reasoning with Evan about not joining the Valkyries. He’d find out if the life was for him real quick though and face the same choices that Tyler had.

When they reached the busy streets of Downtown Vinewood Tyler realized just how well their nightclub was doing. There was a line that wrapped around the building. “You weren’t joking about making a profit.” Tyler said as the SUV pulled into a private parking lot. Nicole smiled at him over her shoulder as she shut off the engine.

“I think you’ll like the place, some of the staff in particular are bound to catch your eye.” There was a deviousness on her face that most men would probably consider attractive but to Tyler, right then at that moment it didn’t strike him that way. Ryan tapped him on the shoulder and he climbed out of the SUV and caught the suspicious and cloudy gaze of Howard Hill as he shut off his black Western Hellfury. Tyler wasn’t looking to get in a fight tonight but by the way Howard was glaring at him, it definitely felt like the odds were being stacked in that direction.


	2. Chapter 2

**Dramatis Personae (face claim links)~**

  * [Kasey Barnes](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/sgp-catalog-images/region_US/showtime_svod-3450395-Full-Image_GalleryBackground-en-US-1554268584127._RI_.jpg), bar tender
  * [Riley Lyman](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/e35/38779310_328752994335053_2414974919864483840_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=105&_nc_ohc=y0EXg1o8ZpcAX_UDRyn&oh=c7c65355b49d615a392ee2aa213f01d1&oe=5EBC13C9), bar tender/tattoo artist
  * [Hannah Wilson](https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/18077179_1358330927576338_1800188018419554065_o.jpg?_nc_cat=106&_nc_ohc=zTtU1D9PQUoAQlFq9N6M9Q3TV8FzZIMFZsp1xMkqJdc7s4hnhIRmzZVWg&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=728c954ef0602d55e86a588db9c7801c&oe=5EA2B5D6), bartender
  * [Tyler Wolfe](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/taboo/images/9/98/Cast_Infobox_-_Tom_Hardy.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170720212205), former Valkyries Sergeant at arms
  * [Howard Hill](https://celebrityhometown.com/wp-content/uploads/featured-img/m/michael-rooker.jpg), Valkyries Vice President
  * [Mike Ramsey](http://ecwfrenchtribute.free.fr/HTLM/Photos/T/The_Undertaker/The_Undertaker_-_Mark_Calloway_98.jpg), Valkyries Road Captain
  * [Alex Baine](https://imagesvc.timeincapp.com/v3/mm/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn-s3.si.com%2Fs3fs-public%2Fsi%2Fdam%2Fassets%2F13%2F06%2F21%2F130621151600-randy-couture-t1b-single-image-cut.jpg&w=1100&q=85), Valkyries Treasurer
  * [Nicole Mortimer](https://i.redd.it/7suhbuzpm1i11.jpg), Ryan Mortimer's Old Lady
  * [Ryan Mortimer](https://img.cinemablend.com/filter:scale/quill/f/c/0/4/3/b/fc043bc78b26c9bbe51c411a8dec5a598b10e6a8.jpg?fw=1200), Valkyries President
  * [Tone Sampson](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/gtawiki/images/d/d5/ToneSampson-GTAV-Forum_Drive_Families_in_game.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/480?cb=20180717012013), Chamberlain Hills OG



**[PART TWO]**

**_Nightclub Omega_ **

Nightclub Omega was an okay place to work once you got used to the thumping bass of the house music constantly blasting across the PA speakers and the flashing strobe lights dancing all over the place. It had been a long while since Kasey Barnes had worked in a place like this, not that the Vanilla Unicorn was anything like Omega. It was a much classier establishment, yes there were dancers, but they were up on pedestals and weren’t pressured to give dances, and other things, to patrons.

She was glad that part of her life was over, she’d come close to having to go back to it though. Her life had been a series of rapidly unpredictable twists and turns that had left her angry, scarred and just plain tired. At the age of eighteen she’d left home and floated from one friend’s couch to the next until landing a job at the Vanilla Unicorn. She couldn’t say her time there had been an entirely negative experience. For all the creeps she’d had to deal with she’d made some good friends there.

She’d also met the man she both loved and hated more than anyone else in her entire life. Tyler Wolfe. She often thought back on that fateful day when she first laid eyes on him, young and fit and freshly patched into the Valkyries Motorcycle Club. She had thought about what might have happened in her life if she hadn’t fallen for that damn cocky smile of his, or the way he beat the hell of the man that had grabbed her while she was performing.

Brawls weren’t too common at the Unicorn but they were known to happen from time to time, but it wasn’t all that normal for the security staff to get their asses handed to them. Tyler and his buddies had done just that and took the place over for an entire night. If only she’d just said no when he had asked her to come back to his place, then she might have been spared a world of heartache.

It didn’t work out that way though. The relationship they developed was fiercer and more passionate than any she’d had before. She soon found herself living in his small apartment in Paleto Bay and instead of dancing for dollar bills, she found herself pouring drinks at the Hen House.

That went on for two years and they’d moved on from that apartment to an okay house in the middle of town. The money Tyler was making from the MCs activities afforded them a comfortable life but it came with risks. She never knew if when he walked out that front door if it would be the last time she saw him or not. She knew what Tyler did for the Club around town, what his reputation was, and looking back on it she knew it should have bothered her. The truth was she had liked having the most feared man in town as her man, because people feared her, people respected her. All because she was Tyler Wolfe’s Old Lady.

She’d started going to night school and saving money so she could work on becoming a lawyer. Something told her it was going to come in handy one day. She thought she was happy and she’d even introduced her little sister Jaimie to Tyler’s best friend because she trusted the MC.

Then one day she got a call from Nicole, even though she was only a year or two older than Kasey she was the de facto den mother of all the women because of who she was married to. Nicole told her that Tyler had been arrested. It wasn’t too long after that, that he was sentenced to four years in jail.

Overnight her life changed. All that respect and fear she’d enjoyed disappeared. The money dried up and her so called friends in the Valkyries paid her no attention. Without Tyler around she had become nothing to those people.

It was going to be rough getting through all that time without him but she had been willing to stick it out, but just a month after he’d gone in she had found out she was pregnant. She knew immediately that she wasn’t going to tell him right away, he didn’t need that on his mind. So she had the child, a boy that she named after Tyler. Then Tyler started going crazy in jail, he started doing things that kept getting his sentence extended until he was serving ten years.

It was clear to her that if he was going to keep acting like that inside jail, that he’d go right back to that shit when he got out. She didn’t want that in her child’s life. She stopped taking his calls and ignored his letters. She used her savings for law school to get a shabby apartment in the Alta neighborhood, but that didn’t last very long.

Her father had a stroke and she had to go and move in with him to be his nurse because he didn’t have insurance and she couldn’t afford to put him in a facility. This situation created a rift between her and her sister, an actual registered nurse, because she wouldn’t come down to help due to the fact that she was running an apartment building and didn’t want to leave it in the hands of her unreliable employees.

For eight years she watched her father waste away and her bank account dwindle as she tried to keep up with his medical expenses, as well as the house and making sure her son had clothes and food. When her father passed she was severely in debt and had to sell off practically everything. After that she wound up moving her and her son into a shitty apartment complex in Strawberry, it was all she could afford.

She languished for another two years going from job to job trying to save as much cash as she could, but somehow, she always found herself dating someone who managed to find a new way to drain her bank account. That brought her up to less than a month ago when she walked into the Unicorn to apply for a job because it was close to her home and she could work during the day while her boy was at school.

Low and behold, just as Kasey was walking into the building, walking out the strip club was Nicole Mortimer. She stopped Kasey and asked her what she was doing there. For a second Kasey had considered not telling Nicole, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she needed to tell the biker queen what she was doing.

Without missing a beat Nicole had grabbed her by the bicep and led her away from the strip club and told her. “You’re not dancing on a pole, you’re going to come work for me.”

Kasey didn’t know what that meant but she really didn’t want to be working at the Unicorn again. That afternoon over lunch Nicole had filled her in on what she was working on and that she needed good bartenders for her new nightclub. Nicole had gone out of her way to make it clear that this was a venture separate from anything the Valkyries were involved with. Kasey wasn’t biting on that piece of bait though, nightclubs were big business in Los Santos and she knew that if Nicole Mortimer was going to open one that Ryan Mortimer and his gun running thugs were sure to be sniffing around somewhere nearby.

Still, Nicole had offered her a job that paid more money than her last four jobs combined. She couldn’t turn it down but it also meant that she had to work nights and weekends and had to find someone to watch TJ when he got home. Kasey took the job and had been working at Omega for just over five months. A couple more and she’d have enough to get out of that shitty apartment and find something in a better neighborhood.

She was also pleased that the Valkyries were hardly ever around, if she was lucky, they never showed up but for the most part it was maybe twice a month.

The other bartenders that Nicole had hired were easy to work with too. Hannah Wilson was the other full-time bartender besides Kasey. Just like Kasey, Hannah was a blonde and they were both about the same height, a few inches south of six-foot. The other bartender was Riley Lyman, she only worked weekends because she owned and operated a tattoo shop in Paleto Bay. She was dramatically different from the two blondes, she stood at five-foot four, maybe five-five if she was in heels. She had jet-black hair with red dyed tips and was covered in tattoos.

There was no set uniform for the staff at Omega, it just had to be black. The three bartenders were wearing a variation of the same thing; black tank top, leather pants and heels. Hannah was wearing a Lovefist tank with her hair in a loose tail, while Riley was wearing knee-high high heeled boots and Kasey was wearing standard heels.

Hannah was working the secondary bar near the entrance to the nightclub while Riley and Kasey were working the bar in the main room near the DJ booth. The club was packed, as it usually was on a Saturday night, and things were going great. She’d already accumulated the usual amount of tips she received on any given night and she’d already been hit on three times and that was before anyone was even tipsy. All in all she had a feeling it was going to be a pretty good night.

Riley let out a frustrated sigh though after a fourth man hit Kasey with a cheesy pick up line. “Quit hoggin’ them all Kasey, leave some for me!” She said as she leaned on the bar.

“What’s the matter?” Kasey grinned. She was well aware of her friend’s romantic slump. “You sound a little jealous there.”

“Maybe I should dye my hair blonde and get a boob job or something.” She said looking down at her chest and then at Kasey’s much larger bust. “You and Hannah don’t seem to have any issues getting guys to buy you drinks. God I’d kill for a bad pick up line.” She huffed.

“Aww don’t worry Riley, someone is bound to get drunk enough tonight to hit you with one!” Kasey said as she put and arm around her friend and gave her a squeeze.

“You’re such a bitch sometimes Kasey, you know that right?” Riley laughed as she shrugged the blonde off.

Kasey shrugged. “I’ve been called that once or twice shockingly enough.”

“Yeah, not that shocking.”

Kasey went back to making drinks as people began coming back up to the bar when Nicole entered the room and worked her way through the crowded dance floor towards them. Kasey was none too pleased to see a few Valkyries walk in behind her, to add another layer of anguish was the fact that they were all the older ones. Alex and Mike were okay, but Ryan rubbed her the wrong way and Howard…that man was a pig that had learned to walk upright.

“Ladies, we’ve got guests tonight.” She said cheerfully and gave Kasey a reassuring pat on the arm. “Their drinks are on the house tonight as usual.”

“Send them to Hannah.” Kasey said. “I really don’t want to deal with Howard tonight Nicole.”

The raven-haired woman shook her head. “Sorry, but you’re going to have to for one night.”

“Fine but if he gets handsy-”

“Who is that?!” Riley said suddenly and Kasey turned to see what she was looking at and her heart dropped into her stomach. Tyler Wolfe was standing there. He looked different somehow and then she realized he’d put on a lot more muscle than he’d had the last time she’d seen him.

Kasey turned her ice-blue eyes towards Nicole. “What is he doing here?” She said through gritted teeth.

“He got released today.” Nicole said simply.

“Why didn’t you tell me that?!”

Nicole raised a hand. “Kasey, stop. It’s been a decade. I know you hate him but he’s here so do your job.” There was no friendliness in Nicole’s voice. “I need to talk with Tony so only come looking for me if something really goes to hell.” She gave Kasey one last glance and walked off towards the back office.

Kasey took a deep breath. “Fuck.” She grunted through her teeth. She looked up and saw Tyler looking right at her. He looked just as surprised as she was but she was sure he wasn’t feeling as hostile as her.

“Who is he?” Riley repeated.

“My ex-boyfriend.” Kasey muttered as she went back to making drinks to keep her mind from going crazy. She did her best to keep her gaze low and just focused on what was on the bar in front of her. She didn’t want to make eye contact with him again.

But things just went from bad to worse. “Hey pretty lady. Fancy seeing you here.” That damn southern drawl hit her ears and made her want to peel her skin from her face. Alright so there was one man she hated more than Tyler Wolfe.

“I work here Howard, pretty good chance you’ll see me here.” She said without looking up. She could already smell cheap whiskey on his breath. “God, do you soak yourself in booze or something? Would explain why you look like a human prune.”

“Nothing wrong with an Irish Coffee in the morning.” Howard said as he leaned against the bar. “I’d love to let you soak in some of my prune juice any time you want though.”

Kasey’s face wrinkled in pure disgust. “Real classy, asshole. Now what the hell do you want?”

“I remember when you used to be a whole lot friendlier, I’m sure a lot of the boys do.”

Kasey finally looked up at him, her face a mask of lividness like you couldn’t imagine, and she was ready to clock him in the face but she didn’t need to. Tyler was there muscling in beside Howard and suddenly the Valkyries VP became very quiet.

“This is where you fuck off Howard, go bother someone else.” Tyler said as he leaned against the bar and settled his gaze right on Howard like a laser.

“Gimme a beer.” He grunted at Kasey and she reached under the bar and slid him one of the warm ones that hadn’t been placed in the ice box yet.

Howard gave them both a dirty look before he stumbled off towards the VIP booth that the group had been given. Kasey watched him go and reluctantly returned her attention to Tyler. What did you say to someone after ten years of no contact?

“Kasey I-” He began and just hearing him say her name was too much.

“Tyler, not now.” She said. “I’ll come get you on my break and we can talk then. Okay?” She asked him.

He just looked at her and nodded his head slowly. “Sure, can I get a beer first though? A cold one preferably.”

She got him a cold bottle and even opened it for him. He gave her a nod and walked off into the crowd and Kasey let out a long sigh of both frustration and relief.

“Wow.” Riley said, her eyebrows raised. “I think you and I need to talk about some of your past.” Kasey just looked at her and shook her head.

“I’d rather we just get back to work.”

That’s exactly what she did too. For the first half of her shift she focused on the task at hand and pushed Tyler, Howard and the rest of the Valkyries from her mind.

\-----

Tyler was torn. He hadn’t expected to see Kasey so soon. It was both a good thing and a bad thing really. It was good because now he knew how to find her but it was bad because he hadn’t figured out how to say all the things he wanted to say to her. Of course he wanted to know why she had stopped taking his calls and returning his letters, even though he was sure he knew the answer.

A ten-year jail sentence wasn’t something he could expect her to wait around on his sorry ass for. She had most likely just moved on with her life while his was put on hold. That was the hard part, realizing that the world had changed around him while he rotted away.

He returned to the table that the Valkyries had been given and sat down at the opposite end of the table and put as many people between him and Howard as he could, that didn’t stop the VP from glaring at Tyler as he drank his piss-warm beer though. The tension at the table hadn’t gone unnoticed and Ryan leaned forward over the table to create a bit of a barrier.

“So, Tyler, what do you think of the place?” He asked.

Tyler shrugged. “It’s better than where I spent the last decade. Too much black light though if you ask me.” His gaze drifted back towards the bar where Kasey was working. “You could have told me she was here.”

“I didn’t know if she was or wasn’t going to be here.” Ryan shrugged. “She doesn’t work for me so I don’t know her schedule. I do know you’re going to have a hell of a time getting back on her good side though. From the few things Nicole has mentioned about her, Kasey’s had a rough go of things since you went in.”

Tyler shook his head. “She stopped taking my calls so I wouldn’t know anything about that.”

“If you hadn’t gotten caught then you wouldn’t have any problems then now would ya, boy?” Howard laughed as he reclined back against the horseshoe shaped booth.

“I wouldn’t have gotten caught if someone else hadn’t gotten drunk and passed out in the car two blocks away!” Tyler snarled back. He snapped his head towards Ryan. “Then you went and made him the damn vee-pee?! What the fuck were you thinking?”

Mike and Alex’s eyes darted between the two waiting for Ryan’s response. It wasn’t all that often that someone talked to him like that and got away with it, but Tyler Wolfe wasn’t a regular person and Ryan Mortimer wasn’t exactly thirty years old anymore, hell he wasn’t even fifty.

“Howard has done his job perfectly.” Ryan said in a measured tone. “And you lost your ability to criticize club decision when you decided you wanted out.”

“I still think you’re being too soft on him about that.” Howard said. “Look at all that ink he’s got on his arms. Should make him black it out at the very least.”

Ryan made a small wave with his hand. “He earned those and did everything we asked of him on the inside. Without some of the connections he helped established, our situation with the VLA and the Angels would be a lot worse. So he can keep the ink. He won’t have anything else.”

Even though it was Tyler’s choice, hearing Ryan say that stung a lot more than he had thought it would. Tyler really was walking out on the only family he’d ever really had. With Kasey clearly mad at him and no MC to fold in with, a sense of loneliness that Tyler had never felt before, not even in prison, crept over him. It was something he was going to have to accept and deal with until he got his life straightened out…or as close to straightened out as he possibly could.

“Oh shit, look what the cat dragged in!” Someone yelled over the buzzing bass of the music. Tyler and the others looked up as another group approached their table.

The green clothing they were wearing easily marked them as Families, but there were several different Families sets in San Andreas. These were Chamberlain Hills Families, the largest and most powerful set in the city at the moment.

Tyler knew they were CGF because he recognized the man who had called out to them. He was Tone Sampson, a CGF OG that had been locked up with Tyler for a couple years. Tyler had actually saved Tone from a shanking attempt by the Vagos.

“Wasn’t expecting to see you here Tyler, it’s been a minute!” Tone said with a big grin as Tyler stood up and gave him a quick embrace. “When’d you get out man?”

“Today.” Tyler said. He didn’t consider Tone a friend but he could be civil with the man. The only reason he had saved Tone from the Vagos was the business relationship between the Valkyries and the CGF. The fact that a group of Chamberlain Hills gangsters walking into the club the same time most of the Valkyries leadership was also there seemed too convenient for Tyler. “What are you doing all the way out here in Vinewood in the middle of the week?”

“We got an invite from the Allfather here.” Tone said nodding to Ryan and using the nickname that all the founding members of the Valkyries were given by other members. “Didn’t know it was a welcome home party though.”

Ryan smirked “Well ya know, I love to surprise people.” It made sense to have a meeting in a club with music like this playing. If anyone was listening in, they wouldn’t be able to hear anything. At most all anyone would get is a bunch of guys sitting together having drinks.

Tone and his guys joined the Valkyries at their table. “The Boss wants to know if we’re still looking good on that order, got some shit we need to move by the end of the week.”

Ryan nodded his head. “I’ve got some guys on it right now, you’ll have your party supplies.” He said as he downed his beer.

Tyler didn’t pay any attention to the shop talk going on at the table. His mind was on the woman working the bar less than sixty feet from him. More importantly his mind was on the way that that Howard was glaring at her over the rim of his glass. It didn’t improve any as the drinks and night went on.

It wasn’t too much longer before a bottle of vodka found its way to their table and shots were being poured. Tyler hadn’t ever been big on vodka so he only did one shot, but Howard just kept knocking them back over the course of the night. Tyler found it crazy that Ryan was letting this man be his second in command. There was no way Howard was going to be able to ride his bike out of here back to Paleto Bay.

“I’m gonna hit the pisser.” Howard slurred as he stood up and took a moment to steady himself.

“Ten bucks says that he passes out in the damn toilet.” Mike said as he knocked back his second shot.

“I’ll take that action.” Alex said. But Howard wasn’t heading for the toilet

\-----

The bar was starting to slow down now that a few hours had gone by and sadly it had given Kasey more time to think about Tyler and her situation, her mood had not improved at all. So of course Howard would stumble his way to the bar and slump himself over it.

“Blondie, gimme another.” He barely managed to say, his face a putrid shade of purple.

Kasey’s face twisted in disgust at the raw stench of vodka just pouring off him as if he was a human still. “You’ve had enough Howard, I’m cutting you off.”

In reality she would have loved to keep serving him until he got on his bike and ran headfirst into an oncoming dump truck, but she couldn’t put the nightclub in that kind of a predicament. She needed the money. So against her instincts she had to look out for Howard’s wellbeing. She also had to try to not vomit from the shear idea of that obligation.

“Oh come on, just one more. Then maybe you and I can go take a ride somewhere and I make you squeal some?”

“I wouldn’t get on a bike with you if you were sober. I’m sure as hell not getting on one with you like this.” She said as she finished cleaning some glasses and stacked them away behind the bar. “And if you ever bring up trying to make me squeal ever again, I’m taking a god damn torque wrench to your balls. Now get away from my bar and get a ride home.”

She turned away from him, which, as she thought about it later on, was a stupid thing to do on her part. Howard reached over the bar and grabbed onto her ass. That was the last straw. Kasey spun around and her fist came flying up into his face and landed flush with the bridge of his nose.

“Oh shit!” Riley exclaimed as she took a few involuntary steps back as Howard was knocked off his already unsteady feet with blood streaming from his nose.

“Touch me again and you’re a dead man Howard.” She growled at him as he got back to his feet and glared at her.

He put his hands on the bar top as if he was going to climb over it but he never even got that far. Before Howard could do anything else he was spun around and received a few more fists to the face, bigger and more powerful fists that belonged to Tyler.

Kasey could only watch as Tyler silently pummeled the drunk man until security rushed in and grabbed him. Or tried to. It seemed that there was nothing that was going to stop Tyler from beating Howard into a pulp. The nightclub only had a small handful of security, shit like this hardly ever happened in Omega, and it showed just how unequipped they were to deal with someone like Tyler.

He wasn’t a world class martial artist, just a damn good boxer with scary strength and endurance. It wasn’t until Mike, Alex and Ryan joined in that Tyler was eventually subdued. Nicole came storming out of her office and saw the commotion.

“What the hell happened?!” she yelled at Kasey.

“Howard got mad that I wouldn’t give him any more booze and then he grabbed me. Then this happened.” She said pointing at the scuffle.

Nicole shook her head and pointed at Alex and Mike. “Get Howard out of here, I don’t want him coming back either.” She said to her husband. Then she turned to her security staff who had finally managed to get Tyler subdued. “Take him out back and let him cool off.”

Tyler didn’t argue as he was lead to the back parking lot by the security staff he’d just been wrestling with. Kasey dropped what she had in her hands and went to follow but was stopped by Nicole.

“Why does trouble seem to follow you wherever you go?” Nicole said. “You’re just one big shit magnet.”

“Fuck you.” Kasey said as she shoved past her boss. Two of the security guys were still standing outside watching Tyler as he paced a small line in the parking lot. “You guys can go back in, this guy isn’t going to hurt me.” She said and when they didn’t move. “I’m sorry, did it sound like I was asking you to leave? I need to talk with him alone.”

The guards were just fed up at this point and walked back into the club without saying a word.

“Some security you guys have here.” Tyler said as she started to slowly walk towards him.

“Yeah well they aren’t used to wrestling with mountain men.” She said as she crossed her bare arms over her chest. “What the hell is all that shit on your face?”

“I know, it’s the first thing on my list when I get home.” He said as he ran his hands across his cheek as an awkward silence fell over them.

“What the hell are you doing Tyler?” She asked him eventually, deciding to just cut to the chase. “Didn’t you learn anything from going to jail for ten years? If that had been any other nightclub and any other person but Howard or a member of the club, you’d be going right back to prison tonight.”

“I know, I know.” Tyler said quietly as he looked down and massaged his blood covered hand. “I just saw him grab you and reacted, I’ve got my own issues with him too. I’m sorry.”

Well that wasn’t what she had expected from him. The Tyler she knew never would have apologized. This was an interesting development, maybe he had learned something in prison after all, then again maybe he hadn’t because he had come to the nightclub with his old gang.

“You can’t really be too mad at me, you threw the first punch.” He grinned at her. “It was a nice one too.”

“Well I learned it from the best.” She sighed and another awkward silence fell over them. There was so much she wanted to say to him, things that had collected over the last decade and now here she was with the chance to say them and she couldn’t get the right words to come together.

“This isn’t how I wanted to do this Kasey.” He said, filling the empty space this time. “I didn’t know I was coming here, I didn’t know you worked here. I wanted it to be different when I saw you for the first time since I got locked up.”

“How was it going to be different? You’re still with the Valkyries and you’re still a hothead who thinks with his fists before anything else.”

“No.” He shook his head. “I’m not with the Valkyries, I left them. I think them bringing me here was going to try and be one last pitch to get me to stay with the group, but I’m done. I lost too damn much for them already.”

He took a couple steps towards her and slowly reached out with his hand to run the back of his index finger down her shoulder and bicep. It sent a wave of goosebumps down her body and the feeling of his hands on her body created a rush of memories that were better left forgotten.

“I just want to get back to where we were before and start pulling my life back together.”

“You think you’re the only one who’s life is wrecked?” She said stepping out of range of his hand. “After you went to jail I was left alone. No one wanted to help me, not even my own bitch of a baby sister. I had to move from one shitty house to the next and then my dad had a stroke and guess who had to go and become a live in caregiver? I know your dad got sick and died, and I’m sorry that happened Tyler, but at least yours didn’t stick you with the bill when he passed. I had to use all that money I had saved for law school to pay his bills and I’m in so much debt that I’ve sold everything he had and it barely made a dent. I’m living in the goddamned Tahitian in Strawberry Tyler because it’s the only place I can afford while I pay off his creditors. On top of all that I’ve got to provide for a child too!” She yelled at him without so much as taking in a single breath as she spoke.

She hadn’t meant to reveal the kid thing, but it had just slipped out while she was getting everything off her chest. When she said it she saw a physical change in Tyler, like he deflated a little bit.

“I’ve got a god damned kid Tyler.” She repeated, this time more quietly and fighting back tears. “I can’t do this with you anymore. You’re wild and unpredictable and dangerous, that might have worked for me ten years ago when I was the same way, but I can’t put my boy through that. _I_ can’t go through that. So just…stay away from me, please.” She said and then turned and hurried to the door, leaving Tyler alone in the parking lot.


End file.
